New York's Youth
by DevilishSophistication
Summary: In the twisting alleyways and busy streets of modern day New York, a romantic adventure will take place. Will Caspar get back his beloved, or is she lost to him forever?  New York's Youth is my spin-off of "Baby Gangs" by Marta Taylor.
1. Taken

**INTRO**

"You're wasting my time." He informed me. I could easily detect the fury in his normally calm voice.

"No, Carter! I swear to you, I would not dare to do such a thing." I assured him, forcing my voice to stay steady.

I imagine it was a miserable scene. A tall, broad boy standing with his arms crossed, dark eyes surveying what was in front of him through the rough black hair hanging in his face. A girl knelt at his knees on the hard woods floor in front of him, her long skirt gathering around her dirty pale legs. With her hands clasped before her chest, long brown hair hanging over her shoulders and bright blue eyes that were filling with tears as she gazed up at the boy.

Anyone watching us must have viewed me as a pathetic wench. I would have agreed with them if they'd said so, but now that I look back, I was not pathetic. I was desperate to save the one thing I had left.

"Then move on with it, and fast. I suspect you'll be good at that." His deliberately harsh words stung more than any blow ever could. I wiped my eyes, choked back my sorrows and told him the whole truth.

"I never wanted to leave you, Carter, please believe me. I had no choice."

"There is always a choice." He interrupted, reminding me of what I had once believed.

"No. There is never really a choice, my dear." He winced when I called him that, "They had it all set up, they would have killed you if I didn't go with them."

"You could have run."

"Their reach was too far. They had men everywhere."

"Get on with it." He was getting impatient, so I stopped stalling and began the real story.

**BIRDIE'S POV**

I awoke with a greasy hand over my mouth and a pressing knife at my throat.

"Now, my little Birdie," The low voice whispered in my ear, "You're going to get up, and come out this window with me."

I shook my head in protest and struggled against the hand.

"Stop her moving!" The voice ordered, I winced away from the vile breath that washed over my face. I felt hands pin down my arms and legs, I was trapped.

"I've got men all around your little 'safehouse', and three of my best right outside your precious leader's room. If you don't come, we'll begin a slaughter of everyone in this house, the head honcho first."

"No!" My cry was muffled through the big hand forced across my face.

"Oh, yes." I could practically hear the smile in his voice.

He had me, and he knew it. Whoever my captor was, they had one thing wrong. I wasn't worried about the leader of the house, who I was supposedly linked too. He was nothing but a safety net to me, a cover. The person I was really thinking of was Caspar, or Carter. They called him Caspar because, despite his unusual height and broad muscular chest and shoulders, he could pass undetected like a ghost through any place he wished. The room he slept in was the closest one to the back door, and it would be one of the first rooms that people were killed in.

The fear in my mind kept me from even considering the fact that this person might be lying, it never occurred to me that the one I loved may be perfectly safe in his bed, just the way he should be. So as I stole into the night with a cloth over my eyes, a dagger at my back and the same disgusting hand dragging me through the darkness, I whispered my goodbyes to him, and said for the first and what I thought may be final time, "I love you."

**CASPAR'S POV**

"_**Where is she?**_" I yelled at the top of my lungs.

Nobody answered. They were too afraid, not a single person in this house had ever seen me lose my temper before, and now I was on the verge of committing a mass homicide.

"We don't know." Manny said quietly. He was supposed to be our brave leader, and now he was shrinking in the face of my anger.

"_**Find her!**_" I grabbed the closest object and hurled it at the wall with all of my strength, the ancient lamp shattered and pieces of glass flew in all directions. Again, I was met with silence.

A younger boy began sweeping up the broken glass, taking care not to step on any.

These idiots weren't going to be any help. I turned and stormed out of the front door, leaving it wide open behind me as I ran down the street.

Where could she have gone? She'd never left before, not without somebody to keep her safe. Birdie had known the streets could be dangerous, she'd seen what could happen if you weren't careful. It didn't make sense that she would just up and leave in the middle of the night like this, but she did, and now she was gone.

**BIRDIE'S POV**

It was morning and I was sitting in another safe house in the middle of nowhere. I'm sure that if I could get out I'd be able to find my way home, but they hadn't even let me leave the room yet. This place was in even worse shape than where I'd been a few hours ago. The floors and walls were full of holes from who knows what, the carpets are nearly shredded and the lock on the door is busted. They've got a guy standing right outside of my door to keep me in. I haven't tried to get out yet, I've just been investigating my surroundings. There is no way for these people to know what I'm doing in here, so I have peered into every drawer, examined every corner and checked for hollow spots under every floorboard. This room is nearly escape-proof. But nothing is perfect, and there must be a way out.


	2. Broken and Defeated

**CASPAR'S POV**

I didn't go back to the safe house until late that night and when I returned, Bear, an older boy with scruffy brown hair, dark skin and an animal-like glare in his eyes, stood in the foyer. He turned and went down the hall into the main room. I followed him but stopped in the doorway to the main room. Nearly every boy in the house was perched on a chair, the edge of one or standing behind one.

"She's not coming back." Manny spoke softly, I could tell he was worried I would lose my temper again. All of the boys looked at me with a mix of fear, concern and confusion on their faces. They didn't know what was happening to me, not a single one of them had ever felt the way about someone that I had about Birdie.

"It's only been one day. You don't know that." I had never known Manny to be wrong before, but I refused to believe him.

"One of our own saw her in a night gangs house." He held his hands out with palms facing the ceiling in a gesture of sympathy. I noticed that he left out which gang the safe house belonged to.

"I don't need your pity." I hissed, and spat on the floor. Boys gasped. Outside, you could spit all you wanted, but in the house? That was the ultimate form of disrespect. Even we gangs had our rules, and there were some that you just didn't break. I had broken one of them. I turned and left the house again, but not before grabbing my worn and faded brown leather jacket off of the wall. Outside, I walked around to the back of the house and charged the locked door of an old shed. The hinges broke and the door fell inward, I surveyed the objects in the shed and selected two smaller guns off of the racks on the wall, checked the safety and slid each one into a special pocket on either side in the lining of my jacket. Every boy in the house had a specialized jacket to hold weapons whenever we were having a dispute with another gang.

On the way out as I was snagging a butterfly knife out of a carefully arranged drawer, a shadow fell across my feet. I glanced up with the knife in hand, and then slowly let it fall to my side.

"Did Manny send you out?" I asked, placing the knife in my pocket.

"No."

"Then why are you here?" I turned to fully face Kelly, the short, skinny boy standing in my way. His grey cap was falling over his eyes and messing up his bright red hair that seemed out of place above his tan, freckle-free face and dark brown eyes.

"I'm going with you." He stepped past me to grab a pistol and slip it into his own dark jacket, then pulled two long, curved daggers out of the same drawer I had just been in. He also took out two sheaths and attached them to his belt loops before sliding a knife into each.

"You're of no help to me." I told him and began to leave.

"Why not?" He followed me. As we passed the front of the house, I wondered why Manny hadn't sent someone to stop me yet.

"You're young, inexperienced and above all, you're small." I could have gone on, but I had never been a big talker.

"Exactly! I'm small! I'll blend in." He insisted.

"No."

"You can't stop me from following you."

I didn't reply. He was right. I was just going to have to put up with the little pest. At least, until I found Birdie.

**BIRDIE'S POV**

"Hey, doll."

My eyes snapped open to see a tall thin boy standing in the doorway. I quickly recognized his grease covered hands as they hung at his sides and I fought back a grimace.

"Who are you?" I asked flatly.

"My name is Keegan. You're now the top girl in the Northwest Night Gang."

"Top girl?" My hands gripped the armrests until my knuckles turned white, top girls were always kept under lock and key so other gangs couldn't get them.

"Yeah, Boss is your boy now. Get used to it, girly. You ain't going nowhere." A sly grin slid onto Keegan's smug face. I wanted to punch that kid so hard that he couldn't be able to smile anymore. Instead, I gripped the chair even tighter as I began to realize just how much trouble I was really in.

**CASPAR'S POV-PRESENT DAY**

"Caspar," A head poked into the doorway. Birdie was still on the floor, and her mouth was frozen halfway open in the middle of a word. She quickly shut it and looked down. I now sat in a chair on the farthest side of the room where I had been listening to her side of the story from.

"What?" I replied flatly.

"There's someone here," The boy said. I didn't remember his name, he was new. "I think you might have to take care of some business."

"Bidness?" I asked. In the gangs, there was a distinct difference between business and bidness. Business was legitimate and there was no way we could get in trouble from it, while bidness was usually some underground operation or a feud with another gang.

"Yessir." I nodded. The boy left but I didn't move.

"Why is he telling you?" Birdie asked, a confused look mixed with her mask of worry. I'd forgotten how much Birdie had missed while she was gone.

"Manny is dead. So are a few others. I'm the head of the house now." My voice was still flat. If I changed it, I would probably start yelling. There was a long pause, and Birdie finally asked it.

"What happened to them?"

"They died," I sighed, "Getting you back."

Her shoulders only slumped even further.

"Caspar!" A voice called from downstairs. I stood and headed for the door, pausing with my hand on the knob. I looked at Birdie for a moment, she had changed so much.

Her once thick, shining hair was dull, tangled and dirty. Her once glowing complexion had become pale and ruddy. Her eyes, that used to be so big and bright, now watered constantly and rarely left the floor. She used to stand so straight and proud, but she had shrunken and slouched as if she hoped that she might just slink away from the world.

They had broken her, and I despised them for it.

Her hands came up to her face and she started to cry.

"I'm still here." I said, figuring she'd thought I was gone.

"I don't care." She sobbed with shoulders shaking as she sunk even closer to the floor. I didn't know what to do other than leave, so I did. I remember how she used to always make me leave the room when she thought she might cry, until now I had never seen Birdie like this.

She didn't care anymore.


	3. Ragtags and Fate

**CASPAR'S POV**

"Manny didn't tell you what gang she's with, did he?" Kelly asked as he jogged alongside me. I was about two and a half feet taller than the boy, so I walked at the same pace he would jog. I walked faster, hoping he would get tired and leave. He ran a little faster.

"No."

"It was Boss's gang."

"The Ragtags?" I stopped altogether. Boss ran the smallest, most pathetic little gang in all of New York. They only had about ten guys total, all living in one tiny little shack in the bad part of Manhattan. We called them the Ragtags because of it.

"Yep. So I don't think it will be too hard to get your girl back." Kelly sounded a little too confident to me. I grabbed the front of his shirt and lifted him to my eye level.

"Rule One of being part of Manny's gang, never underestimate your opponent."

"Okay!" Kelly choked out. I set him back down so he could breathe.

"That's how you end up dead." I added for emphasis.

"What, underestimating people or being lifted five feet in the air by giants?" He laughed at his own joke. I didn't think it was very funny.

"Let's go."

**BIRDIE'S POV**

"Boss wants you." Keegan stood in the doorway again, the wood creaking under his hard-toed work boots.

"Now?" I asked, "I'm a little busy, could it wait?"

"Don't be smart, Boss won't like that." Keegan frowned.

"Maybe he should steal himself another girl then." I snapped.

"Get up." His voice went dangerously low.

"I'm rather comfortable." I shook my head a bit as I shifted in the increasingly uncomfortable chair.

Before I even knew what was happening, Keegan lunged forward and drove his fist into my stomach. The wind was immediately knocked out of me and I fell forwards onto the dank floor. I gasped for breath, clutching both hands to my gut and squeezing my eyes shut to hold back the tears.

Shutting my eyes was a mistake.

Now his boot collided with the exact same spot. The only difference was that my hands were there now. I suddenly had just enough breath to gasp in shock and pain as nearly every bone in my right hand was crushed and then forced into the quickly bruising skin below my ribs. I couldn't breathe yet again, and by now I was convinced my face was turning blue with the lack of oxygen.

"You should do what I say, girlie." He leaned down, hissing in my ear.

"Yes," I finally found the air and answered a few seconds later.

"Get her up and fix her up. Then bring her to Boss and make sure he don't know how nothin' happened." Keegan ordered two other boys standing in the doorway as he pushed past them and down the hall.

"You take care of her, man. I'm out of here." One boy said, and I heard him walk away too. I heard footsteps coming closer to me and I quickly curled up in a defensive little ball, putting my good hand over my hand and hiding the other between my knees and stomach.

"You can open your eyes, I won't hurt you." A soothing, gentle voice whispered. A hand carefully laid itself on my shoulder. I opened my eyes and looked at the boy. He was tall and lean with a long face and big blonde eyebrows to match his light sandy hair that stood straight up on the top of his head.

"Why did he do that to me?" I whispered back.

"Just a second." He said, shutting the door then returning to me. He sat down about two feet away with his legs crossed and one hand placed on each knee.

"Why did you do that?" I forced myself into a sitting position. For some reason, the severe pain I should have been feeling in my hand had disappeared for now.

"This crappy old house is surprisingly soundproof when the doors are shut." The boy said, "My name is Derek. Keegan's a jerk but I didn't think he would go that far. Are you okay? Your hand looks pretty bad, he must have kicked you really," The pain suddenly returned and I broke down, sobs wrenching through my body as I cradled my smashed hand and leaned forwards over the throbbing pain in my stomach.

"Oh my god, you're really hurt! Oh wow, geez, ok I'll be right back!" He jumped up and ran out the door, returning a moment later with a brown shoebox in his hands. He threw the top of it aside and pulled out a big roll of that stuff they use to wrap sprained ankles and things like that.

"Can I have your hand?" He asked quietly, holding out his own. Still crying, I held my hand out towards him and squeezed my eyes shut again. To me, crying meant you were weak. Even Carter had never seen me cry, and I didn't want this stranger seeing it any more than he had too.

I gasped and started crying harder when he took my hand and began to wrap it.

"I'm really sorry this hurts but I'm trying to be careful and it will help it heal I swear!" He blabbered as he wrapped the stuff around my hand and wrist. Finally a minute later, he took out a safety pin and pinned the end of the long strip he'd torn off onto another part of the makeshift cast so it would stay on.

"I don't think there's anything I can do about your stomach, but you can take one of these. Unfortunately we haven't got any water to wash it down with so you'll have to do without. The trick is to get enough spit in your mouth before you take it that you can just use that." Derek explained as I listened to him pull out something that sounded like a bottle of pills. I would have told him to just shut up about halfway through his explanation if I hadn't still been crying with my eyes closed, which is a lot harder than it sounds.

"Take these, wipe your eyes and knock on the door once you've got yourself together. Then I'll take you to see Boss. You can't tell Boss what Keegan did to you, you've got to pretend that your hand was hurt before you were brought here otherwise there'll be big trouble and I really don't think that there'll be any way to stop it before it starts so just pretend Keegan didn't even come near you and it'll be fine I guess."

"Shut up!" I finally managed to choke out. Derek stood and left, closing the door behind him. I pulled my knees up to my chest and cradled my injured hand in front of my stomach with the other.

"Carter," I whispered, no, I pleaded through my tears. "Please Carter, come save me. Get me out of here."

"Are you ready?" Derek's voice called through the door. I faked a few loud sobs to buy me some more time and also to shut him up. Although I was still crying, it wasn't nearly loud enough for him to hear anymore.

Finally opening my eyes, I looked around the blurred room. A blank bottle sat before me. I shook it. There was a fair amount left. I twisted the top and opened it, to see about twenty round blue pills rattling lying in the bottom of the white bottle. Carefully and quietly, I dispensed all but five pills into my hand and shoved them into my pocket. Then I replaced the top of the bottle and set it down in the exact same spot. I used the sleeve of my hoodie to wipe my eyes and sighed. There was no way around it, I would have to go see this Boss person, and I would have to go along with what these people wanted until Carter came to save me.

"Hello, I'm Birdie. I hate you. I hate everyone here. And I don't plan on being here much longer." I said aloud, pretending that I was talking to Boss. My voice sounded good enough. It was still a little weak but it made me sound like a scared little girl. Which I was, but I hadn't sounded like it before.

I got up and gave one solid knock on the door. Derek opened it, wrapped his hand around my arm, and led me to my fate.


	4. The Sister and the Italian

**BETTS' POV**

Leslie coughed in surprise, sending a spray of tea across the table and into the face of the young red head. I watched her for a moment, wondering if she would want me to clean it up.

"What?" She asked

"Birdie's been taken." The tall, broad boy repeated.

"Elaine has?" Leslie seemed as shocked as I was.

My sister, who had left so long ago, and this was how I finally found her? I had been searching for her for the last three years and now she is lost to someone else, too.

"Elaine? I'm talking about Birdie."

"Her real name was Elaine." Leslie told the boy. Elaine Robin Baeggs, my sister, used to work here for Leslie with me. Birdie had been her nickname. I was dying to speak up and say something, but I was busy with the question why Leslie hadn't pointed out to these boys that I was Betts, not her.

"Oh."

"We're trying to get her back!" The little red headed boy piped up as he wiped tea off of his face. Leslie lifted the small white cup to her lips again, then had a thought and set it down without sipping. She did that a lot.

"Why are you here? I haven't got her." She leaned forwards towards the two boys, both looking extremely uncomfortable in the office. I suppose, to two young orphan boys from a street gang this place would seem quite grand and imposing. She propped her elbows on the edge of the table and rested her chin on laced fingers. Her squinty eyes surveyed the boys for the second time since they'd entered my office while I awaited an answer.

"Birdie," The tall boy began.

"No," Leslie stopped him, "in here, you will call her Elaine."

"Elaine," He started again, "told me about you once. She told me that you'd always been an amazing sister and she'd hated to leave you, but just couldn't stay any more. She told me basically everything she knew about you and I remembered nearly all of it. I figured since you two had been so close you would help me get her back."

Leslie nodded, thinking this over in her head. She shut her eyes and slumped a bit. She heard one of them shifting around in their seat and her eyes flashed open again.

"What are your names?"

"I'm Kelly," The little one said and removed his hat to nod politely at her, "And this here's Cas,"

The big one coughed loudly and Kelly said quickly, "Oh, um, this is Carter."

"Kelly and Cas-Carter?" I questioned.

"Just Carter, ma'am." Carter corrected me. Leslie raised one eyebrow at the ma'am. Although she was used to being respected in that sort of way, it sounded wrong coming from the mouth of a street gang boy.

"So you two came to see Elaine's dear old big sister Betts, did you?" Leslie stood and, towering over them imposingly.

"Yes'm!" Kelly answered quickly.

"And did you think that I would just loan you some of my own men?" She leaned towards them.

"We figured you would want to help your sister." Carter nodded.

"Well guess what, boys! I'm not Betts." Leslie laughed.

"But, but," Kelly stammered looking terribly confused. Carter nodded. He was a lot quicker thinker than Kelly was, I could tell. He turned in his chair, and looking directly at me, stated: "So you must be Betts."

I rose from my little chair in the corner and crossed the room to shake his hand.

"Hello." I smiled at him.

"Hi, Betts." He didn't return my smile, but I didn't really mind. "I'm sorry that I mixed you up with your boss here, I should have asked who Betts was when I got here. Now that I see that you're the maid, I'm guessing we won't be getting much extra force on our side?"

"You're getting me." I smiled again. I couldn't help it; I'd always been a smiley person.

"I suppose that's better than nothing." Kelly sighed. Carter elbowed the younger kid again.

"Ow! Would you stop that?"

"I guess we should be on our way then." Carter announced, pointedly ignoring Kelly's complaint.

"We should." I nodded.

"Betts! If you walk out of here you'll never work for me again!" Leslie jumped to her feet and screamed. This was so like her, to overreact about everything. Although she was my age, she was my boss and I'd always had to put up with her smug superiority.

"Then I quit." I stated loudly, tossing my hair over my shoulder and exiting the room without a second glance. Behind me, I could hear Carter and Kelly scrambling after me. Actually, Carter walked and Kelly scrambled. He really was quite short.

**BIRDIE'S POV**

Derek brought me down a flight of stairs and a short hall until he stopped before what I figured was the only door in the house with a lock. He knocked with three short raps followed by two harder ones and waited.

"Enter, Derek." A deep voice floated through the door, barely perceptible from this distance.

"You heard that, right?" Derek whispered to me. I nodded briskly. "Good." He pushed open the door and we were in a poorly lit room with no windows and just one flickering light hanging just inside the door. It wasn't a very big room, yet it was at least double the size of the one I had been in upstairs. Much longer than it was wide, the light didn't reach the other end, where I could just barely make out a figure sitting in the dark on a large chair.

"Shut the door." The figure said.

"Yes, Boss." Derek pulled it shut with a bang and winced at the noise. I was trying to see more of Boss, squinting and straining my neck to get a better look.

"Who is this?" Boss inquired. His voice had a strong Italian accent to it that was impossible to miss.

I would have bet that he was staring back at me. The difference was that he could actually see me. Derek and I were standing directly underneath the light.

"Manny's girl."

"No she ain't!" Boss slammed his fist down on something hard, "Manny doesn't have girl. Where the hell did you get her from?"

"I swear Boss, we got her from Manny!" Derek scrambled to answer, obviously trying to please.

"_Idiota_!" He exclaimed, slamming his fist again. "You got the _donna_ from Manny's _casa_, but it is not Manny's _ragazza_!"

I stumbled to keep up with him as he shouted in half English, and half what I suspected was Italian. I understood that donna was woman, idiota was clearly idiot and casa was home. I figured ragazza must be girl or something similar to that.

"I'm sorry, Boss." Derek's hand tightened around my arm and he took a noticeable half step backwards.

"_Cretino_! You fool!" Boss's shape rose from the seat and stomped towards us. As he neared, I could see the dark olive skin and curly head of light brown hair. He stopped not a foot from me and his hand shot forwards, grabbing my jaw. He turned my face this way and that, examining me with his beady black eyes.

"_Lei e bella_." He whispered.

"_Si_, Boss." Keegan's voice came from just behind me. I hadn't even noticed him enter the room!

"_Cosa dobbiamo fare con lei?_" Keegan asked. So he spoke Italian also, I hadn't noticed the accent in his voice before but I guess it was there. It just wasn't nearly as prominent as Boss's.

"_Mi piace questo._" Boss smiled at me while he spoke. His smile was full of malice and intent. What exactly he intended was not clear, but I hoped I wouldn't be around long enough to find out. "_Ritorno alla sua stanza, lei a stare con noi per ora._"

"_E' fatto._" Keegan replied. His hand pushed Derek's aside and encircled my arm, gripping tighter than was comfortable. He began to pull me away, but was stopped by one last thing.

"Oh, and Keegan!" Boss called, "What happened to her hand?"

"I'm not sure Manny was very nice to this little girly, Boss. It's how she was when we got her." Either Keegan was a good liar, or Boss was terrible at knowing when someone was lying to him.

"Ah, I see. Go then." Boss waved us on, and I was marched back up to the tiny room, with the old wooden chair and creaky old bed. I thought I wouldn't be here much longer, that Carter would come get me very soon.

I was wrong.


	5. Temper and False Immaturity

**CARTER'S POV-PRESENT DAY**

I hurried down the stairs and to the front room to see a thin, dark skinned Italian boy standing in my foyer. Several of my own boys stood in the room as well, nervously watching for any trouble with impatient hands twitching towards the knives concealed in their coats.

"Hello, Boss." I greeted him.

"_Ciao, Fantasma_." He nodded in reply, and used his new nickname for me. Fantasma meant Ghost in Italian.

"What do you want?" Seeing as I wasn't exactly in the mood for politics, I cut straight to the point.

"The girl."

"You lost her, Boss. She stays here."

"_E suina! Tu non la merita! Sei sporcizia!_" He shouted, slamming his fast on the hardwoods doorframe. I didn't know what he said, but I'm sure it wasn't nice.

I nodded to two of my boys, Dallas and Bo. Bo slid behind Boss and shut the door, standing directly in front of the doorknob. Dallas twisted Boss's arms behind his back so he couldn't get away. I slipped a butterfly knife out of my pocket and started flipping it around so fast that one could barely see the blade.

"I'll ask you to hold your temper in my house, _Capo_." I began, using Boss's real name. His eyes widened as the watched the knife spinning around in my hands. "You lost the girl, and she is ours now."

"_Lei signore, non sono nessuno ma un umile asino! La ragazza merita di meglio!_" He struggled against Dallas as he hissed the words at me. Again I hadn't the slightest idea of what he said, but I was sure he was not being civil.

I stopped twirling the knife about and pressed the flat part of the blade against Boss's throat.

"**Did I not just tell you to hold you temper?**" My voice raised and became stronger, sterner, and more menacing.

"Caspar…" Kelly's voice drifted in from behind me. I took a deep breath and reined in my temper.

"Thank you, Kelly." I said, back to the constant monotone that was becoming my norm. "Dallas, Bo, take care of this piece of shit. Just make sure his blood doesn't land on our doorstep." They nodded and began dragging Boss towards the back door. They'd go through the alleys until they were far enough away from the safe house to do what needed to be done.

"Wait." I stopped them, "Take Grits with you, make sure he remembers every word."

A shorter boy stepped out of another room when he heard his name and follow the other two out to door.

Grits was one of our few bilingual boys. Spanish was the language he grew up around, but he'd learned to be near-fluent in both English and Italian.

"They won't be gone too long." Kelly said. I paused to look at him. The little ginger was still as tiny as ever, but he was a lot smarter than I'd originally given him credit for. Once I became the head of the house, one of the first things I did was make him my right hand man.

I sighed, thought for a second, and replied. "I sure hope not. Half of New York is after our asses right now."

**BETT'S POV**

"Are we going to get her back right now?" I asked, trotting down the street alongside Carter and the short one whose name I learned was Kelly.

"We're going to stake out the house that she's in." Carter replied.

"What house is it?"

"I can't say."

"Why not?"

"Be quiet, please."

I crossed my arms and fake-pouted.

"Aren't you older than Elaine?" Carter asked me.

"Yes, why?"

"Act like it."

I gasped in offense. How dare he! Now I was really upset. I stopped walking, firmly planting my feet on the concrete and crossing my arms. Now instead of a fake pout I had a real glare.

"You can stay there if you'd like, we won't wait." Carter called over his shoulder. They walked on, and just as they were reaching the end of the block, I realized that he was serious. My feet slapped on the pavement as I ran to catch up.

While we walked down long city streets, ducking into alleyways when we reached busier areas of town, I was thinking. Carter didn't mind abandoning me because he didn't need me. When he first came into Leslie's office, he'd been expecting her, the only female mob-boss in New York, to give him some men to rescue her baby sister. Instead, he got me. I must have been a burden in his mind, just another person to watch out for.

I needed them though. I could finally find Elaine again. I could get my sister back.


	6. The Musical Hoarder and the Unexpected

**BIRDIE'S POV**

It had been three days now. Carter hadn't come. They gave me a bottle of water each morning accompanied by a slice of white toast with peanut butter. That was all. I hadn't been taken anywhere else, or even seen any face other than Derek's. I hadn't heard any voice but my own, nor had I particularly enjoyed listening to myself, but I couldn't bear the silence any more.

"The room feels smaller than it did before." I announced to the stale air. I shut my eyes and took a deep breath, pretending I was in my old house. My real house. My home.

"It's difficult to even pretend in this place." I said. "All I want is to return home to my beloved. Carter, why have you not come to my aid?" I spoke slowly, enunciating every word and trying to speak all proper-like. It was mildly entertaining, if not a bit interesting as well. I dragged my chair over to the window, putting it close enough that when I sat down, I had to pull my legs up and cross them because there was no room between the chair and wall. After nearly an hour of studying the street below, the apartments and stores across from me, and the people walking by and standing about, I began to sing.

_Do you hear me_

_I'm calling to you_

_My Darling,_

_Do you not hear my cry of distress_

_Amongst these city streets_

_I lie hidden_

_I call to you to find me_

_My Carter,_

_My Caspar,_

_My Ghost,_

_The ghost that stole my heart_

_So long ago_

_Now my Ghost,_

_Don't let me slip away_

"Your voice is awful pretty." I could practically hear the blush on Derek's face as he spoke.

"I didn't hear you coming in." I replied coldly.

"Boss wanted me to check on your hand." I turned around in the chair and shoved my injured hand into his face, the massivly swollen thing looked like a giant lump of purple, black and yellow all mixed into one ill-looking color.

"How does it look to you?" I held it towards him but turned my face back to the window. "I think it's gotten a bit better."

"Keegan's a jerk." Derek muttered.

"Oh really? I didn't really get that vibe from him. Now, have you got any pills for me or not?" Derek nodded and dropped two large white pills into my good hand.

"These are different than the other ones." I observed.

"We ran out of the blue ones. There were a lot less than we thought there were." Derek shrugged.

"That's unfortunate. You can go now." I nodded him towards the door and he exited, shutting it firmly behind him. Using the slowly fading light coming in through the window, I carefully read the tiny lettering carved into the white pills. I pulled a blue pill out of my pocket and read the lettering on that. The white pill was bigger but the blue was a higher dosage. I shoved the white pills into my pocket along with the fifteen blue pills that remained there. I hadn't taken any of the medicine that I hoarded on the first day, only the ones Derek had given me since then.

I wasn't sure why I was hoarding these pills, but something was telling me that I would need too. Now all I had to do was figure out why.

**CASPAR'S POV**

I couldn't stop thinking about Birdie. I knew Betts wasn't actually immature in any way, and I did regret being rude to her when I wouldn't answer her questions, but I had no patience left for her. If I had known I was going to get a maid instead of a few mobsters when I went to find Birdie's sister, I wouldn't have gone at all. I was grateful that despite her and Kelly's constant chattering with one another, neither of them had pestered me with the questions of where we were going, when we would get there, and where we would stay tonight. I had answers to the first two, but the third remained a mystery to me. It was likely that we would be spending the night on someone's doorstep or maybe even in an alley. Hopefully it wouldn't rain…

"Caspar…?" Betts's voice pulled me out of my thoughts.

"What?" I asked, turning to see…

Oh… Well I hadn't expected to see that.


	7. Questions and Disappearing Acts

**CASPAR'S POV**

Two older boys, both of them nearly as big as me, stood behind Kelly and Betts, pushing a gun into each of their backs. Kelly kept a mask of calm collectiveness on his face, but Betts's was too easily read. Her face screamed with the fear and shock that she was feeling.

"Who're you?" I asked coolly.

"You ain't getting the girl back." The blonde one said, his buzzed hair revealing a few small scars etched across his head.

"Don't be so sure."

"We already are."

A shot rang through the air and I instinctively dropped to the ground for a split second before bolting around the corner. I stopped just on the other side of the building and slipped a gun out of my jacket, took one deep breath and leapt back around the building to see….

Again, I was not expecting that.

"What the…" I slowly returned the gun to the jacket while I tried to process what had happened. Where did everybody go? I was only gone for a moment, how could I have not heard them all running away?

"Kelly?" I called. There was no reply. I yelled for him again, louder this time, and a woman walking by on the other side of the street gave me an odd look and quickened her pace.

"Betts?" No reply.

Now I had three people missing. Kelly and Betts were important of course, but Birdie came first.

Nodding to myself to assure the finality of my decision, I turned and kept walking in the same direction I had been before. I would come back for them after I got my girl back.

**CASPAR'S POV-PRESENT DAY**

I don't know how long I sat outside of that door, listening to Birdie cry. Eventually, I became lost in thought and everything around me just drifted into a blur of sight and sound that I didn't care to decipher until I heard her speak again.

"Who's out there?" Birdie's voice carried through the door. I could see her shadow creeping through the small space between the door and floor below it. She could probably see mine too.

"Me." I answered.

"Oh." She said simply, and her shadow disappeared as I heard her retreat away from the door.

_No,_ I thought, _Don't leave, Birdie. Come back and ask me a question. Ask me why I'm sitting out here instead of in there. Ask me why I saved you, even when I knew the risk I was taking. Ask why I went back for you even though I thought you had moved on. You used to ask me so many questions before, now just ask._

As I waited for a reply that would never come, I realized that the silence was even more painful to hear than the sound of her tears.

**BETT'S POV**

"Don't be so sure." Carter said slowly. A small whimper came from my mouth as the cold barrel of the gun was shoved a little harder into my back.

"We already are." A gun fired, from where I didn't know but for a split second I thought it was I who was shot. Before I could gather my thoughts or even react, Kelly's hand latched around my arm and began dragging me into the nearest alley. We were sprinting down a long narrow alleyway, and turning down another whenever we could. After only a few seconds of this we stopped and leaned against a wall. I tried to catch my breath and pull myself together while Kelly stood straight, listening for something.

"Kelly!" Someone called faintly.

"Was that Carter?" I asked. Kelly nodded but gave me the sign to keep quiet.

"Kelly!" The voice came again, a bit stronger this time.

"Call back!" I urged Kelly, "Tell him that we're here!"

"Shut up!" Kelly whispered angrily. Suddenly his eyes widened and he pulled me around one more corner, shoving me towards a mountain of black trash bags that I proceeded to fall into. He gave me a look so intimidating that I didn't dare to say anything, or even move.

"Betts!" Carter's voice called out again. I slowly and quietly pulled myself out of the trash bags, checking to make sure I didn't get anything on myself before creeping over by Kelly just in time to see the two boys who had held us at gunpoint not a minute ago walk by.

"Do you see them?" The blonde one asked.

"If I'd seen em, I woulda shot em!" The other replied. After they were out of our sight, Kelly waited a few more minutes before we left to go back to Carter.

"He's not here." Kelly told me. I stepped out of the alley a few steps behind him and he was right. Carter wasn't there.

"Where could he have gone?" I asked, glancing around in case he was just hiding somewhere.

"We didn't call back and he probably just kept going." Kelly said nervously.

"So? What's wrong with that?" It had seemed to me that Carter wanted to be alone.

"I can't believe he didn't recognize those guys." Kelly muttered.

"Who were they? Tell me what's going on." I demanded.

"Those guys were two of the most infamous assassins for the biggest uptown gang in New York. If they're after us because of Birdie, then this whole thing is a lot bigger than what Carter knows."

"But then who fired the gun? Neither of us was shot." I wondered.

"I don't know…" Kelly paused to think for moment. "We can't worry about that right now. We've got to get back to the safe house and talk to Manny."

I held all my questions back and resigned to following Kelly back to wherever the safe house was. I would get my answers later.

**BIRDIE'S POV**

"It's getting late." I announced to the room, as if there was someone listening. "Maybe Carter isn't coming tonight. Or, maybe he's already here. He is Caspar after all, the sneakiest of them all. Why, I bet he's right behind me just waiting to surprise me and take me home!" I turned around in the chair with a huge smile on my face. There was the same empty room that had been there five minutes ago. My smile slowly faded away until all that was left was a tight-lipped frown of disappointment and anger.

Of course I had known he wouldn't be there when I said that, but I would never stop myself from hoping. I didn't know it then, but eventually hope would be the only thing keeping me from total insanity.


	8. Streetfights and Scars

**BETT'S POV**

I sat in a worn chair in the main room of the safe house Kelly had brought me too, quietly listening to his and Manny's, the house leader's, conversation.

"You're sure it was them?" Manny asked for the third time.

"I know I haven't been around as long as the others but I would recognize Manuel and his brother anywhere." Kelly assured him patiently.

"Damn…" Manny muttered. He scratched his head and sighed. "You're sure Caspar didn't recognize them?"

"I'm positive. You know how he feels about those two. If he'd recognized them he would have gone after them, not left." Kelly sighed also and leaned back into the couch he was sitting on.

"Why would Manuel and Luc be working for the Ragtags? They've always been exclusive to the high-end uptown gangs." Manny wondered as he began to pace the length of the room.

"This whole thing is about more than the Ragtags getting a new girl. The big uptowners are involved in this somehow and you know that whenever they get involved, it gets dangerous."

"It gets bloody." Manny nodded. "We've got to figure this out before Caspar can get himself in any trouble."

"How?"

"I was thinking along the lines of a friendly visit."

"Manny, even that can get risky with these guys."

"I know it's taking a chance," Manny stopped pacing to look directly at Kelly, "but doing anything else would be digging our own grave, or even someone elses."

**CASPAR'S POV**

"You're still going after the girl, eh?" The smooth uptown drawl came from behind me again.

"Ya'll had better not be point no gun at me." I replied, ditching my usual- and fake- diplomatic way of speaking for the accent I'd grown up with in the city slums.

"Why don't you turn around to find out?" The voice said, and so I did. I found myself face to face with the same scarred blonde boy who had held Betts at gunpoint not more than a few hours ago. He didn't have a gun, only a gleaming stiletto knife clutched in his meaty rich-boy fist.

"Din't your momma ever teach ya not to get into a gunfight with a knife?" I asked, slowly pulling my pistol out of my jacket.

"Throw the gun away, orphan. We're fighting this out fair and square." He took a step back and spun the knife in his hand.

"Make me." I challenged.

"Toss it away." The other boy stepped around the corner with an awfully expensive looking gun in his hand. I slowly nodded and slid it into the busy road; cars rushing by would never notice us. People walking by would simply avoid us.

"It don't seem fair for us to have blades, I reckon this here should be a fist fight." I suggested slowly to the blonde boy still spinning the knife round in his hand.

"That seems fair." He tossed his knife to the other boy and I pretended not to have one. I slid my jacket off and set it against the brick wall. The other boy did the same.

_Luc!_ I suddenly thought in alarm as we began to circle each other. I glanced at the boy with the gun and recognized him as Manuel. How had I missed such an important detail before?

Luc lunged forwards, his fist swinging in an awkward ark towards my face. Foolishly I was distracted by my realization of their identities and his clumsy punch made its target. I stumbled back but managed to keep my balance.

"That all you got, rich boy?" I spat at his feet, my saliva coating his fancy leather shoes. He lunged forwards again but this time I ducked under his arm then quickly turned and kicked him square in the back. Luc landed on his face and jumped back up. Fires burned in his eyes and I could see the real fighter in him coming out. This was no longer a street fight between a few angry kids; this was something more dangerous between two trained fighters.

He came at me with fists flying in carefully calculated punches, nearly every one making their mark, then as payback for my kick he planted his boot in the middle of my chest and pushed as hard as he could. I fell back and my head collided into a lamp pole with a sickening crack.

I took a second to count my injuries. At least one cracked rib, and my head was definitely bleeding. I could feel it running down my neck and soaking my shirt. I cracked my knuckles as I rose menacingly and grinned.

"Oh, it's on now." I chuckled. I whipped a butterfly knife out of my jacket and flipped it between my hands and around my fingers as I advanced on Luc.

"Manuel!" Luc yelled. A blade whistled past my head and was caught firmly in Luc's fist. My mistake had been to think that giving Luc his knife was the only way Manuel was going to help him. As I was about to jump forwards, my arms were pulled back behind me and Luc laughed as I struggled to escape.

"Bring him to the alley." Luc said, nodding to where the two had come from before they ambushed me. "We can't finish it out here."

**CASPAR'S POV-PRESENT DAY**

I stood in the bathroom, glowering at my reflection the in the grimy mirror. To be specific, I was glowering at my scars. The puffy reddish lines that ran from my temple to my jaw line across each cheek, the three horizontal scars on either side of my nose, and the one going vertically from my brow to hairline. There were more but I stopped dwelling on the visible scars. I pushed back my sleeves to look at the lines carved into my biceps, and then removed my shirt entirely to see the scarring etched all across my stomach and chest. I reached back and ran a hand across the ones on my back. I couldn't even reach a good amount of those. My long hair hid other scars. I was sick of hiding them. I snatched a razor from the cabinet, turned on the water, and started to shave my head. I was done hiding.

This is what I was now.

Disgusting.

**BETTS' POV-PRESENT DAY**

"Where's Elaine?" I demanded, "Where's my sister?"

"Betts, please, we really can't have you seeing her right now." Kelly spoke softly as he tried to guide m into a nearby chair.

"I don't care! Where is she?" I persisted, peering past Kelly and up the narrow staircase. "Is she up there?"

"Caspar said nobody can see her but him."

I gave a final huff and sat back into the chair without Kelly's help.

"The moment he says otherwise, I want to see her. You got that?" I told him firmly. If I wasn't the first to see her once Carter changed his rule then there would be a few dead boys in this house.

"I got it." Kelly nodded and left. I bet he was going off to find Carter.

**CASPAR'S POV-PRESENT DAY**

I didn't notice the door creaking open. I didn't notice as Kelly stood there in the hall, staring at me.

"Jesus, Caspar, I thought it was only your face!" He exclaimed. I noticed him then. He stared, gaping at the red shiny lines erratically streaking across my body.

"Get out." I turned to face him; my broad shoulders casting a shadow over the tiny boy.

"What?" He asked, snapping out of the trance my hideous appearance had put him in.

"Get out." I repeated. "Now."

He quickly shut the door and I heard him flee down the hall. I leaned against the sink, cursing one of Kelly's few major flaws. He didn't know how to keep his mouth shut. By the end of the day every boy who had ever passed through this house would know what I looked like now.

I reached for my shirt so I could leave, then figured, I would rather have the boys find out themselves than hear from Kelly and wonder what kind of monster I was. I left my shirt on the floor and stepped into the hall. After a short sigh of relief that nobody was there at the moment, I proceeded to go downstairs and to the main room.

I was greeted by a chorus of dropping jaws.


	9. Daggers and Doctors

**BIRDIE'S POV**

"I'm bored." I announced loudly.

"I'm not allowed to give you anything." Derek replied, "Sorry."

"I'm bored." I said again.

"Look, I'm sorry but," He began again.

"I heard you the first time!" I snapped. He was standing just inside today. Apparently someone passing by in the hall had become concerned when they heard me talking to myself and now Derek guarded me from inside the room. I'd tried to convince them that I was not insane, only trying to pass the time but either they refused to believe me or just weren't allowed to.

How long had I been there? Three, four days? It already felt like an eternity. I hated being so far away from Carter, and I hated everyone here for keeping us apart. I'd grown so used to seeing him every morning, night and day that this was near torture to me.

_Please hurry, Carter._ I pleaded in my thoughts, _I can't stand it here. I can't stand being without you._

**CASPAR'S POV**

I strained against Manuel's iron grip as he forced me into the alleyway. Luc swirled around with a cruel smirk on his face. I only had a small window of time and opportunity in which to make my escape, and if I didn't take it then I was sure I would die here.

One of the first things you learn to do in the gangs is fight. If you can't fight, then you won't survive. The fights were never just street fights between unarmed boys; they were battles of strength and skill that usually ended with someone dying. If they didn't die, then they were injured beyond repair.

Wanting to avoid both of the afore-mentioned consequences, I struggled and twisted and used every trick in the book for getting away from someone but Manuel countered them all and Luc just watched me with an amused air about him.

"This bores me." Luc yawned, and lunged forwards. Before I had even realized what was happening, Luc's stiletto knife had plunged itself deep into my gut. I gasped and doubled over as far as I could with Manuel still holding my arms back.

"Boss said to take it slow." Manuel reminded Luc.

"I can do slow." Luc nodded and grinned with an evil glint in his eye while I started hacking blood onto the pavement. "Hold him still."

Luc took a step closer to me with the knife and grabbed my jaw in his hand, lifting my face to look at his. I coughed again, and he frowned but didn't bother to wipe my blood off of his face. His cold eyes surveyed me for a moment, and then he lifted the knife and began carving long, deep gashed into my face. My blood ran hot down my cheeks and neck. I was too weak to try and escape now. The loss of blood was making my head spin and nausea took over from the blood that I was swallowing and coughing back up at the same time. Soon enough, I became unconscious.

I wouldn't wake up until it was too late, and I'd been slashed nearly to bits.

**CASPAR'S POV**

I hated being stared at. My whole life I had gone out of my way to remain unnoticed, and I had become known for being invisible. Now I was impossible to miss. I stuck out like a penguin among geese.

"Betts." I said, directing my attention towards the petite brown-haired girl.

"Can I see her?" She asked.

"Up the stairs, first door on the third floor." I nodded towards the staircase and watched as Betts sprinted up it, eager to see her sister after having been apart for so long.

"Well?" I asked the rest of the boys in the room. "Have you got anything to say or are you just going to stare?"

"We thought it was just your face…" Bear finally spoke up, his eyes as big as saucers as he took me in.

"Are those…" Nelson gulped, "Their initials?" His eyes were fixed on the bright red _L.M._ and _M.C._ carved carefully below the right half of my collar bone. I nodded.

"Caspar…"

"We didn't know it was so bad…"

"Is that all of them?..."

Every boy who managed to say something would trail off and look away for just a moment before their gazes were fixed on me again. While I had their attention, I figured I would address a bigger issue at hand.

"We need a new ghost." I announced.

"What?" They asked, "You've always been the ghost. Why do we need a new one?"

"Just look at me. I can't hide these. My face will be known among the gangs soon enough, and they'll recognize me at a glance. I can't be the ghost anymore."

"But Caspar," Kelly started.

"Carter." I corrected him.

"We've always called you Caspar." He protested.

"And now you will call me Carter." I used an authoritative tone and stern look to remind him that I was in charge, and I would not be questioned.

My word was law.

**CASPAR'S POV**

I awoke amidst a disorganized chorus of various mechanical beeps and flashing lights on monist positioned around me. The bright white lights above my head blinded me at first and I winced away from them. After a few seconds of confusion, I realized where I was. A hospital!

"No!" I exclaimed and began to get up, but cried out in pain and fell back against the bleached linen on the thin hospital issue mattress.

Soon enough, three nurses rushed into the room and began hurrying about, fixing me or something.

"He's awake, he's awake!"

"Oh dear, the poor boy tried to get up!"

"Look at how many stitches he has torn, it'll take hours to fix these."

"Get Dr. Carmina in here, this is her patient."

One nurse nodded and left, while the other two fixed the amounts of medication in my IV drips and used bandages and things to stop the bleeding from the newly opened gashes all over his body.

"I have to go. I have to leave." I murmured and struggled to sit up in a pain and drug-induced state of delirium.

"Hold him down; I'll give him something to knock him out." The tallest nurse said, while the shorter once gently pushed my shoulders back down on the bed. Not long after she did, everything went black again.


	10. Escapes and Raised Voices

**BIRDIE'S POV**

A week. I had been here for an entire week. I was not the type of person who could entertain themselves, I needed to do something. I couldn't stand just sitting here.

"I'm going insane!" I yelled at the window, bent nails forced into its paint-chipped, splintering wood frame. Those rusty nails were meant to keep me in here. I'd tried to pry them up, but only succeeded in slicing my fingertips open. I cradled my still horridly swollen hand against my stomach and rocked back and forth in the chair.

I acquired new bruises. I'd upset Keegan again. He tried to kiss me once when he came to take me to Boss, who I now was made to visit every day. I had pushed him away and when he came back I slapped him. Half of my face was a sickly shade of purple and the eye on that side was swollen shut. My lip was split and my ribs were at least bruised, if not cracked. I tried not to move much. I spent most of the day in the chair, except for the agonizing times I would be dragged downstairs to stand under that lonely flickering bulb and talk to the boy in the dark.

Being here scared me. Although Derek tried to bring me as many pain pills as he could, and sneak me as much of his food as he could spare, nothing got better. I would never grow used to these creaking walls and sagging ceilings that always loomed over me, threatening to collapse. The decrepit building never followed through though, and to my immense disappointment it remained standing. I closed my eyes and imagined the old house shaking and creaking and groaning until it just toppled over, Keegan, Boss and the others caught beneath the rubble, I would run. I wouldn't hurt anymore, I wouldn't be hungry anymore, and I would be fast and strong enough to run all the way home to Carter. I would run all the way back to the one I loved, where he would be waiting-

Wait… He would be waiting? No. He'd better not be sitting at the safe house _waiting_ for me! That boy had better be breaking his ass searching the city for me!

I was suddenly overwhelmed by my uncharacteristic bout of rage, I screamed and punch the wall with my good hand, gasping and curling back into a tiny ball. My ribs protested against my exertion, my hand throbbed violently and my heart sobbed tears of anger and loneliness. I couldn't understand why Carter hadn't saved me yet. The night I was kidnapped I was sure that I would be home within a day. Now I wondered if he was even coming for me at all.

**CASPAR'S POV**

I awoke again to the same irritating noises and blinding lights. This time a nurse was in the room, and she put a firm hand on my shoulder, warning me not to try and move.

"You tore nearly all the stitches on your back and shoulders out last time, dear. I don't recommend doing that again." She patted my shoulder, I winced, and then she apologized and quickly left. Despite her orders, I lifted my arm, made large circles in the air then paused. I hadn't torn any stitches. I reached over and felt my other shoulder. It was completely covered in tiny little bumps. They hurt to the touch but felt as if skin had already begun healing over them. I sat up. My stitches still felt fine. How long had I been here if I had already healed so well? Then again, I couldn't figure that out until I knew how bad I had originally been injured.

I needed to get out of here. My clothes were sitting on the chair on the other side of the room. I limped over, shut and locked the door then quickly got out of the hospital gown and dressed. I had to leave before they figured out who I was.

Just before I slid out of the window, a clipboard with tons of charts and papers on it caught my eye. I removed the papers from the clipboard and stuffed them into my jacket without glancing at the words. I already knew what they were, they were _my_ charts, _my_ papers, and I knew that somewhere in those charts and papers would be a paper with my name on it, my _real_ name.

I pried open the window, surprised that the hospital windows even opened, glanced around outside and slid out of the building and onto the ground. I was stiff, more than stiff. It was painful to move, and I avoided and large, quick or complicated movements. I couldn't afford to pull out any stitches.

Despite my handicap, I disappeared into the sprawling city streets and alleys like I'd never been there at all. There was a reason they called me The Ghost.

**BETT'S POV-PRESENT DAY**

"Elaine!" I exclaimed, bursting through the door with a ridiculously enormous grin on my stupid, stupid face. The grin faded into a confused and concerned frown.

"Elaine?" I whispered to the pale, thin and dirty girl that stood facing away from me.

"What?" She screamed, turning around. "What do you want?"

I gasped and stumbled backwards, tears brimming in my eyes. This was not how I remembered my sister. Her eyes were sunken into dark pools of purple skin, whether it was from tiredness or bruises I didn't know. Her cheek bones stuck out on either side of her face and her arms were literally as thin as sticks. One hand was grotesquely disfigured, the knuckles had been pushed together until they were touching and two of her fingers were stuck crossed over each other, and the entire hands just held itself in an awkward sort of way. The dress she wore hung off of her frame like a sail hangs off its mast on a windless day. Bare, dirty feet stuck out from under the worn and fraying fabric, and even through her angry expression I could see the fear in my baby sister.

"It's me, Betts." I said in a quiet voice. I wasn't sure if I was being quiet to comfort her, or myself.

"I know who you are." She spat at me, "Why are you here?"

"For you." I told her, a little louder this time. Elaine laughed.

"For me?" She laughed again, it was a sick sound that crackled and snapped as it rose up in her throat, another sign of the abuse she'd been through. "Why didn't you come for me when I was stuck in hell for so long?"

"Elaine, you were only in that house for a month.." I held my hands out in an apologetic offer. I hadn't seen my sister in three years; I didn't want this to be how I remembered our reunion.

"It was the longest damn month of my life, and I was on the run from the biggest gang in New York for another." She hissed. "Now get out of here."

"I will not get out!" Now I was angry too. After three years, this was how she was going to treat me? I was her sister!

"Yes, you will! Get out of here! I don't want to see you!" She shrieked at me.

I swallowed my anger and slowly backed out of the room, shutting the door softly as I left. I tried to think of all she'd been through and be sympathetic.

**CASPAR'S POV-PRESENT DAY**

I stood across the hall from the room Birdie was in, listening to every word exchanged between her and Betts. After only a few minutes, Betts backed out of the room and carefully close the door.

"How did it go?" I asked. Betts shot me a vile look then said, "Oh, don't pretend like you don't already know." She paused a moment longer, then burst into tears and ran off.

I sighed and leaned against the wall, remembering how life had been just over two months ago. How had everything changed so fast? How had everything gone so wrong?


	11. Waking Up and Running Away

**BIRDIE'S POV**

"Wake up," A hushed whisper floated into my dreams and I awoke feeling as if an earthquake was rocking through New York city. No, it wasn't an earthquake. There was a girl, younger than I lightly shaking my shoulder.

"Stop," I quickly pleaded, "Please stop." She pulled away and apologized.

"They've all gone out for a big fight. One of Boss's main men got caught, and there's only Derek left. We've got to go now!" The girl explained. She had to be at least three years younger than me, but something in her eyes tried to convince me otherwise. I didn't want to know what this poor girl had been through and seen, and I hoped I would never have to have that same sunken look about me. I studied her face. I'd seen no other girls in the house, but I supposed they could have kept us all apart, however many of us there were.

"We've got to go now!" She repeated, with more urgency this time. I nodded and struggled to my feet. I'd attained many new injuries in the past three weeks-I had been in this hell for just over a month now-and didn't often leave my bed anymore. Derek had helped me move it over to the window so I could still stare out of it like the mindless drone I was fast becoming. She could tell I was hurting, and let me lean on her as we limped out. Derek was half-asleep by the door, and his eyes fluttered open when we reached the creaking staircase.

"No!" He exclaimed, dashing forwards. "You can't leave."

"Derek," The girl said with a pathetic, begging tone. I could see pity filling up the whites of his eyes.

"If you're gone, I'll get punished." Now he was the one begging. He was obviously terrified of what his punishment would be.

"Then come with us!"

"Shanna, you know I can't."

"You've paid your debt to the gang, now get out of here while you can." She insisted.

"I can't, I haven't. I still owe them. They spared my brother, and I'll owe them forever."

Shanna sighed, shook her head and continued hurrying us down the stairs. My heart was heavy with guilt for leaving Derek to his fate, but I didn't look back, I didn't apologize, and I didn't even think about it after that. The will to survive, and avoid injury is strong, and it overpowers almost any sense of humanity. At the rate Keegan was going, I knew that if I stayed here too much longer he would be the end of me. I wanted to live to be 18. Once I was old enough, I could leave the sheltered life of the gangs and start fresh. Before, I'd planned to follow Carter wherever his own life took him, but now that part of my plan was looking a little shaky.

Once we were outside, Shanna led me down main streets, I kept expecting her to turn into an alleyway to we were more hidden, but she never did.

"Shouldn't we be taking the back streets?" I asked.

"Boss's gang doesn't work quite like yours did. Instead of blending into crowds, and becoming one with the masses, he always preferred the method of taking unused routes and using more direct attacks. We'll be safer out here, where he _won't_ be."

I should have known that, Carter had always made sure I knew how every gang functioned and how to avoid them if I ever needed too. We used to spend hours out in the streets, practicing maneuvers and him tracking me while I hid among crowds and ducked through streets. A few times, I even bested the ghost; though I promised not to tell. He couldn't afford a bruised reputation.

"Shanna?" Someone asked from behind us. Shanna's eyes went wide and she quickly turned on her heel, I turned a bit slower but was just as alarmed as her. It was a boy who'd brought Birdie's food to her a few times, his name was Sean.

"Sean!" She gasped. What was he doing here? We were on a crowded sidewalk; he shouldn't have been out here.

"What are you doing?" He asked suspiciously.

"I, uh," Shanna hesitated, glanced around then pulled my arm harshly and screamed "Run!" The people hustling by us stopped to look what she was screaming about, and only saw two thin, frightened girls, one injured and clearly in pain, being chased by an older boy down a busy street. I didn't look back, but soon enough I knew that we weren't being chased anymore.

"Somebody must have stopped him." Shanna gasped as she heaved with ragged breaths, bent over with her hands on her knees. I was also exceptionally tired. Before I'd been kidnapped, I would have been able to run for miles before getting to this point. Now I had barely made it two blocks, and every inch of my body was screaming in agony.

"I have to stop, I have to rest." I told Shanna with the little breath I had.

"We can't stop, Sean will get boss soon enough and then they'll all be after us."

"The Ragtags are small, they won't find us soon." I said, limping towards a bench. Shanna came over and sat next to me with an expression of disbelief.

"You don't know?" She asked.

"Know what?"

"I can't believe Derek never told you. Birdie, this is so much bigger than just the Ragtags. Civil is paying Boss to get him girls, train them to be polite and submissive, to basically break their spirits. Once they're 'broken' as he's calling it, they get shipped up to him."

"Civil?" I couldn't believe it. He was the leader of the most infamous, wealthy baby gang in all of New York! He'd always been kind towards the lesser gangs, and was never one to start a feud despite his having the best fighters in the city. "He can't do that!"

"He is." Shanna said solemnly.

"It's human trafficking! It's… it's never been done by the gangs before."

"It's not just trafficking, he's trying to start a massive war between the gangs. The Ragtags may be taking the girls, but Civil's boys have been framing other gangs. Soon enough, every gang leader in the city is going to be single, lonely, and very, very angry."

"But we escaped. We can go home and tell everyone the truth!" I found the bright side of our situation and a pained grin spread across my bruised face.

"Where are you from?" Shanna asked me. I hesitated, trying to remember what our gang was called.

"I'm from _Die Bruderschaft_." I said. Our name was German for "The Brotherhood." Our leader before Manny had immigrated from Germany, which was the cause for the language of our name.

"I'm from Kensington's gang." Shanna told me. I raised one eyebrow.

"Kensington? He's pretty uptown himself. How did you get taken?" I wondered.

"Civil… bought me." Shanna looked away. "Kensington was a pig, and I never realized it until he gave me away for a few bucks." I didn't know what to say. Should I comfort her? Agree on his piggishness? Say it wasn't her fault?

"We should keep going." She announced before I could say anything.

"I don't know if I can walk very far." I worried.

"I have an idea. I raided their bank before we left. Boss is a little richer than he says." She grinned, pulling out nearly five hundred dollars.

"We might as well do something about our clothes if we've got that much cash to blow." I looked down at my own torn, dirtied and bloodied rags. We were getting odd looks from the passerby.

"Good idea." Shanna agreed, and ten minutes later we were shifting through the racks in a secondhand shop. The shop was a bit more vintage than we'd hoped for, but we didn't have time to go anywhere else. I settled for one of the mildest items in the store, it was a modernized Victorian blue silk dress. I also got a new pair of black sneakers(knock-off converse), I'd wanted real running shoes but it was the best they had.

I didn't know it, but I would be putting these sneakers to use a lot sooner than I intended too.

**CASPAR'S POV**

It's been three weeks since I got out of the hospital. I barely made it back to the safe house before collapsing against the door. I have tiny bits of memory, of the boys dragging me inside, or waking up in outs of fever-induced delirium. I woke up today, suddenly fine. I stormed upstairs with boys leaping out of my path. I slammed open the door to Manny's room and demanded, "How long?"

"How long what?"

"Don't act like you don't know. How long have I been out?"

"Three weeks."

_**"God damn it!"**_ I shouted as loud as I could, slamming my fist through the dry wall.

"Caspar!" Manny stood up from his desk, "Control yourself. You've always been one of the calm ones. What happened?"

"_What happened? What do you mean what happened?"_ I yelled, stepping right into his face. Manny was almost as tall as me, but thin as a twig. "_**Birdie. Is. Gone.**__ That's what happened!"_

"We tried negotiating with the Ragtags, we visited the uptowners about Luc and Manuel. There's nothing we can do. Whatever is going on here is sealed airtight, and we can't get in."

"It's not over. I _will_ get her back." I snarled.

"We tried! Don't get yourself into trouble." Manny implored.

"You didn't try! You never do, Manny. Sometimes, to fix things you have to start trouble. We can't keep being the peaceful gang. We've been walked on for too long! I'm getting Birdie back. I'm going to prove to them that they shouldn't be messing with _Die Bruderschaft_." Manny stared at me for a minute, then sighed and shook his head.

"Your mind is set?"

"Permanently."

"Then we've got your back."

I was surpised. Manny had been against these plans just a moment ago.

"Don't look so shocked, we're called The Brotherhood for a reason, Carter." I nodded, smiled. This would be easier with my brothers behind me.

"Thank you." I said. Manny nodded, and slid past me out the door, yelling down the hall, "Everybody in the basement, now!" Feet thundered across the floor and boys poured out of all rooms as they hurried to get downstairs. Excitement filled the air. The basement was only used for planning something big. Everyone knew that we were finally going to get some action.

They just didn't know that it might be too much for us to handle.


End file.
